This is exactly what I'm looking for. This is an easy question: I'm not a crossfitter, and when I start with crossfit training, I want to do mainly the "girls", lots of stuff with barbells. Do they count as metcon?

I plan on doing this sort of training 2 times per week, as I am mainly strength focused but fell in love with Crossfit.

Yes, the "Girls" are met-cons. Depending on which ones you're talking about, they may not work very well in the program. But it depends.

Nice article, I will share with my clients. I couldn't agree more, improving and maximizing power output in metcons is impossible without improvements in strength. I have a nice pic of your hands after Fran at the Level 1 cert:

Ha, can't believe you still have a picture of that. Those rips weren't fun.

So basically the strength workout is the same every week (as what is posted in that PDF) and if it says "metcon" you go to the website and get it?
Cool, I like it.
Unfortunately because of my work and practice schedule Tuesdays and Thursdays are pretty much spoken for already, Wednesday has to be a work day and Friday has to be a rest day. Dang yo.

I'm sure the program can be tweaked for a practice schedule. PM or e-mail me if you want.

Seems to me this is a mutated form of CFSB, with a linear progression instead of the building progression.

I am very new to strength programming but I have read some of the arguments for the two different styles of strength building.

Where I can see you have differed from CFSB is no Heavy High Rep sets after the 3-5RM stuff, I assume you intend to throw these around in the short Heavy WODs instead.

My question is this…

It seems to me your program and CFSB are saying this.

"Essentially you can grab any of the recommended strength programs (SS, Texas, etc) depending on your current level and preference etc and then throw in some properly programmed short heavy MetCons to create a 'strength biased' program that still pushed MetCon up slowly, or at least maintains it."

Have I got this right or am I overlooking something here due to my inexperience?

Now don't get me wrong finding the programming sweet spot here is the art but the over ridding recipe seems to be...

1 Cup of pure strength program
+
1/2 Cup of properly programmed Short heavy MetCons
+
Stir in a bowl to get it just right
=
A Strength biased program that once one has reached intermediate levels will provide a greater return on investment then the MetCon Biased programs.

If I'm off base here, feedback very welcome.

Cheers

Sean

This doesn't have anything to do with the "Strength Bias". I was working on this stuff before that article ever came out. I don't think your analysis of how or why the program exists is correct.

This program is based on biological responses to stress, and for 99.9% of CrossFitters, they are a novice in strength training. I'm not completely convinced that the people in this thread who ask for the intermediate programming are actually intermediates (sorry Jacob ). But, I'm in a situation where I have a few people who are going to require intermediate type stuff, so it is obviously possible.

I'm also not suggesting that once strength has been increased to some arbitrary point that it is time to go to a met-con heavy program. I think there is enough physiological adaptation evidence that this doesn't have to be the case, but that's a different discussion all together.

If you do this program after you do a complete cycle of SS, you won't progress. This is because you have completed SS when you can no longer add weight to the bar, even after several resets. So this program is only really applicable for novices.

My buddy and I did this exact program over a year ago when we were trying to get our conditioning back after doing TM for about 6 months. We stalled on all lifts in about 3 weeks. I imagine it is probably good if you are still a novice lifter. Other than that, the merits of this program are limited.

Yeah, but we both know that you are part of the .00001% of the population that will do a program like this. That's why it can be programmed differently for more advanced trainees.

If you are just trying to get stronger, I would just do SS until you can't put anymore weight on the bar. From there you can do a whole lot of different intermediate programs.

If you just want a GPP program that has a more structured strength program than CF, this would be a great program. But your lifts are going to eventually stall, which might not be a big deal to you. Being an intermediate lifter is not a bad thing. Rip himself says that most people won't ever need to get stronger than they are at the intermediate stage. It's up to you.

Good luck.

I think it's important to note that if one were to near the "intermediate phase" of the CFWF program, and they previously did NOT do a novice linear progression (AKA Starting Strength), then they would not be considered an intermediate strength trainee. They would just be considered an intermediate given barbell training + met-con.

I think it's important to note that if one were to near the "intermediate phase" of the CFWF program, and they previously did NOT do a novice linear progression (AKA Starting Strength), then they would not be considered an intermediate strength trainee. They would just be considered an intermediate given barbell training + met-con.